Marvel Legends Polaris figure review

When I first started buying X-Men on a monthly basis, Polaris had just become possessed by Malice. Outside of a couple of issues where she was brainwashed by Eric the Red, Polaris wasn’t a regular in Classic X-Men either. It took an extended stint as part of the new X-Factor ver. 2 before I fully came to appreciate Lorna Dane.

It seemed to take Hasbro an equally long time to show a little love to the mutant mistress of magnetism. After many years of topping fan polls and endless clamoring, we finally have a Polaris Marvel Legends figure. Let’s find out if this figure is magnetic or merely repulsive.

Packaging: I love the color theme of the various Marvel Legends lines. The X-Men have a classy yellow gold hue. Polaris doesn’t have to share package space with anyone so both Mike Deodato portraits feature her along the sides. That doesn’t mean there’s an extensive bio however.

Likeness: There’s been a lot of discussion if Hasbro re-purposed Scarlet Witch’s face for Polaris’ face. I can see why that would be debatable, but there’s enough aspects of the features besides the green hair that suggest otherwise. Either way it’s a beautiful head sculpt. Hasbro’s sculptors have really stepped up on that front. The Marvel Legends line has come a long way since the Scarlett Mitch days.

My biggest gripe is the painted on costume. It’s lined up well, but the gauntlets are the only sculpted part of the costume. It gives Polaris too smooth of an appearance and diminishes a unique costume, making the figure look cheap. Clearly sculpting the costume on wouldn’t have allowed for much reuse, but it would have been preferred in this instance.

Scale: Polaris is thankfully shorter than the Scarlet Witch since she doesn’t have balance damaging heels. This should keep her from toppling over all the time. Polaris is slightly shorter than Havok if you don’t take the hair into account.

Paint: That’s a lot of green. What I like the most about the costume is it fully embraces shades of green but still has enough variety to stand out. With an X-Men shelf largely full of blues and yellows, that’s appreciated.

Once again the headsculpt stands out thanks to crisp line work along the headdress, dark wash in the hair and metallic green lipstick. That’s striking and really helps Polaris look distinct. The line work on the costume is very well done although there were some minor scrapes and slop along the torso area.

Articulation: Polaris suffers the same fate of slightly reduced articulation as most Marvel Legends females. Since her power is more of a gesturing nature, that bicep swivel would definitely be appreciated. Hopefully future females incorporate the Captain Marvel articulation, which features that missing articulation point.

Otherwise, Polaris has pretty solid articulation that can hold a number of poses. Thanks to her shorter and lighter cape, Polaris isn’t going to topple over from it allowing for surprisingly deep poses.

Polaris has:

neck

shoulders

elbow

wrist

wrist hinge

torso

hip

thigh

knee (double-jointed)

ankle

Accessories: If you’ve collected Marvel Legends over the last two years chances are great you’ve got Polaris’ accessory. It’s the go-to energy effect bands. Ironically it’s the same more complex one as her longtime flame, Havok.

And if you’d like to count it since technically it’s removable, you could include the cape. I don’t as that’s an essential element of her outfit. Like I mentioned earlier, it’s got a nice heft without being anchor. You’ll probably want to dab a little superglue at the collar circles to help the cape stay in place.

Additionally, Polaris comes with the right leg of the Build-A-Figure Warlock.

Worth it? Right now, this line is highly demanded so finding her for the retail price of $20 is a steal. Eventually, I’d suspect much like the BAF Juggernaut wave, this X-Men series is going to be cheaper. But since I have no patience, I’m happy to have her right now. The $20 price point for Polaris seems fair.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Polaris is a very striking figure with another terrific headsculpt and paint job. My only hangups here were the lack of a sculpted costume and the same accessories. Otherwise, I’m glad to finally have her in my X-Men display.

Where to get it? Two spots currently have this line in stock: Target and Walgreens. Eventually, Toys R Us will get in on the action, but for now those are the stores you’ll need to stalk. Or you can always grab her on Amazon.com or Entertainment Earth.com